DAVID FROST: And now
Iraq. Iraq has been experiencing one of the worst weeks of violence since
the war ended. Only this morning a helicopter has been shot down and the
wave of bombings including an attack on the Red Cross headquarters in
Baghdad has led international organisations to say that theyre pulling
out or reconsidering their presence. Yesterday the American Administrator
Paul Bremer announced he wants to speed up the handover of power to an
Iraqi government. Is this a sign that the United States is looking for
an earlier exit strategy? It seems so. Im joined now from Baghdad
by the man Tony Blair sent to help run Iraq  Sir Jeremy Greenstock.
Jeremy, good morning.

JEREMY GREENSTOCK:
Morning David.

DF: Could we
start with this bewildering point that one finds again and again Jeremy,
which is that with all these terrible killings that have gone on since
the end of the war, the intelligence services everywhere in the past few
days have been confessing that theyve really no idea whos
responsible, whether its foreign fighters from nearby countries,
Saddam Hussein supporters, Baathists, Al Qaeda, disaffected Iraqis
themselves, indigenous Iraqis who dont like the new regime. How
do we find out whos doing this?

JG: Weve got
a very good idea of whos doing it in general. Were just saying
that for any one particular incident its quite difficult to identify
the people whove done it just that day but there are mixture of
ex-Saddamists who think theyve got a hope of coming back which of
course they dont, of imported terrorists and young men from around
the Arab world who want to have a go at the Americans in particular, and
some of the hundred thousand criminals that Saddam let out just before
the conflict started. So theres a nasty mix there. They are having
a go at certain parts of the American system in Iraq. But the most of
the rest of Iraq is beginning to grow in economy thats working,
to come back to life, to realise that its got a huge future. So
we have to set these things in proportion. Its a nasty atmosphere
to work in, but its not as though a lot of things werent going
right.

DF: No, because
everybody here does have a picture that everything seems to be going wrong
and its worse than five months ago, which as you say, you would
disagree with. But what about the point thats come up this week
that maybe we should cut down on our search for weapons of mass destruction
and put some of those intelligence officers into the urgent job of trying
to track down who exactly is doing each of these crimes? Do you think
that that 1400 people could be switched from weapons of mass destructions,
or would that endanger the critics coming out even more strongly with
the fact that there are no weapons of mass destruction?

JG: Well in fact both
are going on perfectly efficiently. There are a huge number of intelligence
officers chasing the terrorists, trying to find out whats going
on, theyre mutating very fast as they learn the atmosphere and begin
to plan between different groups together as Paul Bremer said yesterday,
there is a degree of co-ordination between these different groups but
the weapons of mass destruction people are also perceiving, that was always
going to take a long time. I never expected anything to be found in a
business of a few months, so it is going forward. As for Ambassador Bremers
acceleration of progress, that was always planned for this period. Weve
been talking to the Iraqi governing council who works with us on this,
about speeding up the process, of giving security to Iraqis who know how
these people operate on their soil. And thats a perfectly sensible
thing to do.

DF: What is the realistic
schedule for handing over to an elected and therefore sovereign cabinet
in Iraq? I mean, there is a talk of elections next June, is that over-optimistic?
And how long after that Jeremy, would you say there can be a full handover
to a young Iraqi government?

JG: Well, I think,
David, that after any elections, whenever they are, a handover would be
very quick. A new government would be elected and that government would
be legitimate and sovereign. And would be recognised by the international
community. We would like to get through this within 2004, theres
every prospect that we can do that. But we have asked the Iraqis themselves,
its their process, to set the time line, to set the deadlines they
want to set the process, that they can agree with. So, were waiting
for an answer from the Iraqi leadership as to how they want to play this.
And I think this is going to come up in the next two or three weeks.

DF: So how long would
you say, with your expert knowledge, that we should be expecting? Tony
Blair has said that well stay as long as it takes. How long will
British troops be in Iraq?

JG: Well Im
not going to set a time line, because we have to go with the flow of events.
But remember also that security will be a consideration even after Iraqi
is sovereign and has full authority with Iraqis. We will stay on, the
Americans will stay on, in treaty with them, to make sure theyre
secure. So were here for some time yet. But we are now accelerating
the process of ensuring that Iraqis take over a good degree of responsibility
during 2004. It takes a long time to set up elections in a country thats
never had a proper system for democratic elections. So well need
several months of 2004 to set up the system and a constitution on which
those elections can be held, and I think youre looking well in to
the second half of 2004.

DF: I would think
so, yes indeed. In the meantime, the fact that the UN are planning to
withdraw their remaining people, or a lot of them, and the Red Cross likewise.
When we read things like that, thats one of the things obviously
that makes people think things are not as good as theyre alleged
to be in Iraq when youve got a situation where even the UN and the
Red Cross, instead of coming in are going out.

JG: Yes, remember
that were dealing with two sorts of enemies. Those who think that
theyve got a role to play in Iraq again under some autocracy, and
those who come in from outside and want to go with the Americans but actually
over the last few days and weeks have been killing more Iraqis than Americans,
and theres some bitterness within the Iraqi population that these
people are doing that. They are dangerous but we are going to stay, the
coalition is going to stay, whoever else does not stay, and we can quite
understand that those whove become soft targets for the terrorists,
dont want to do that. We will stay, we will see this through. Were
not going to let the people of Iraq down.

DF: Jeremy, thank
you very much indeed for joining us this morning. Thank you.